


What One Night Can Start

by What_A_Nerdy_Girl



Category: Batgirl (Comics), DCU (Comics), Nightwing (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Cheesy, Cliche, F/M, Fluff, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, Mentions of Murder, long term crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-07-19 04:24:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19968001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/What_A_Nerdy_Girl/pseuds/What_A_Nerdy_Girl
Summary: Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon have never talked to each other but, one night at a party will change all of that.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic so, just be warned it's not great. Well even if this fic is SUPER cheesy, I hope that you can enjoy it!

“Barbara? Barbara! Are you even listening to what I’m saying?”

“Uh… sorry… I was just spacing out again” I replied back to my best friend, Dinah, who was giving me a knowing look. 

“You’re thinking about Dick again, aren’t you?” Dinah asked with confidence, and why wouldn’t she? She knew everything about me, including my crush on Dick Grayson. To be honest I haven’t spoken to him more than once, but there were just so many qualities about him that made me melt like ice cream on a hot day. 

Okay, I know what I just said was really cheesy, but that is truly what he made me feel like. 

“No…..” I replied back, trying to convince Dinah that I wasn’t. I mean, it was kinda embarrassing that I thought about him so much. He didn’t even really know who I am. Sure, we’ve been going to the same high school for 3 years, but I’ve always been the girl who sits in front of the class so, my teachers could see me when I raise my hand to answer their questions. I know that sounds really nerdy, even Dinah teases me about it. I’m wasn’t really a nerd though, I seemed like one, but I wasn’t. I barely studied for tests and most of the time I was watching my favorite show,  _ Birds Of Prey _ . 

I mean, I didn’t have to really study because I had a photographic memory. Dinah told me several times that she wished that she had that. She could look at the whiteboard all day, but wouldn’t have to put in work to actually remember the facts written it. The picture of the whiteboard would just be in her mind. She was lazy like that sometimes. 

As much as I liked having a photographic memory, that didn’t mean that I didn’t have to do any work at school. There was obviously still homework that I had to do and I still had to get a good amount of participation points; which is why I always sat in the front of classrooms. Dick Grayson probably just thought of me as the annoying girl in his Algebra 2 class who keeps on raising her hand. I’ve told Dinah this and she always asked me why I think that. 

Well, he was one of the stereotypical cool guys at our school who sat in the back of the classrooms and seemed to be only half listening to what his teachers said because he was too busy talking to his other cool friends, like Wally West. I didn’t know why, but the fact that he didn’t seem to care about what his teachers thought of him and mostly just cared about having a good time with his friends made me like him a lot as a person. I’m always worried about what my teachers think of me and what colleges will think of me. Honestly, the only people in my life who I didn’t feel self conscious about were my father, commissioner James Gordon, and Dinah. 

Another reason I had a big crush on Dick Grayson because the one time that we did talk, he was really nice to me and seemed to actually care about my feelings. Something that I thought was impossible for boys at my school to do. 

_ Flashback _

_ I was at Oliver Queen’s party that he decided to throw because his parents were away for a business trip. Obviously because his parents were gone, there was a lot of alcohol and pot brought over to his Oliver’s mansion.  _

_ Honestly it could have been worse; the worst thing that happened that night was when Jason Todd got super drunk and started to get violent, especially towards Dick. I didn’t know Jason or Dick that well so, I had no idea why they were fighting each other.  _

_ I was in the room where Jason and Dick started fighting. When Jason threw his first punch at Dick, everyone in the room started to circle around them. _

_ “Hit him back Dick! Show him that he can’t punch you like that!” Roy Harper yelled as he was walking into the circle that was formed around Jason and Dick. It was very apparent that he was drunk because his voice sounded raspy, which was very unlike him and the way he walked in the circle was very clumsy; he almost fell into the pool table as he was walking over to join the circle and encourage the fight.  _

_ I didn’t care about the fight and the fact that it was happening just made me want to go outside and get some air. _

_ As I started walking to the entrance of the mansion, Dinah saw me and started to run up to me. _

_ “Hey! Where are you going?” she asked me.  _

_ “I just need to get some air. You know how I don’t like parties. I mean… I still don’t understand why you forced me to come here in the first place” I replied back.  _

_ “Because I wanted you to have fun for once! You can’t just live your life in your bedroom doing homework and teaching yourself how to do programming.” Dinah countered.  _

_ “First of all, I have fun and there’s nothing wrong with the fact that my fun is centered around my love for programming. Second of all, If it was true that I never had fun, then going to this party is definitely not the answer to that problem. Especially since in the living room there is a fight happening between Jason and Dick, which makes this party even less fun for me because I don’t want to watch two drunk guys fight on a Saturday night.” I retorted.  _

_ Even though I wasn’t admitting it, Dinah was right in some ways. I really shouldn’t spend so much time just in my bedroom. I knew that there was more to life then homework and programming but, sometimes it was just hard for me to feel comfortable around people, especially around my other classmates.  _

_ Throughout the entire time that I was at the party I felt like a turtle hiding in its shell. While everybody was drunk and acting like wild animals, I was there trying to survive in the jungle that is called Oliver Queen’s house when his parents aren’t home.  _

_ “Oh… come on Barb… wait… Jason and Dick are fighting… ugh… of course they are!” Dinah replied in annoyance. She then quickly turns away from me to run into the living room to stop Jason and DIck from fighting each other. I knew that she ran in there to stop it because I know Dinah. She wasn’t the type of person to enjoy watching two people fight like that. That’s something I really appreciate her. She didn’t enjoy the drama that happened between our classmates and in fact she tried (and did succeed sometimes) to resolve the drama that happened at our school. Dinah was basically friends with everyone at our school and she didn’t want stupid drama to end her frieneds’ relationships.  _

_ While Dinah was breaking up the fight between Dick and Jason, I was walking to the outside entrance of the mansion to get some. Which was what I wanted to do before I bumped into Dinah.  _

_ There was a bench right next to the front door that I decided to sit on. I felt more relaxed there then I was inside where music was blasting so hard that I could barely hear my thoughts.  _

_ “Hey, it must be a relief that your psychotic brother is out from Arkham Asylum” someone said in a mocking tone. I looked up to see  _ _ it was Helena Bertinelli who said this to me. She used to be friends with me and Dinah but then she tried to spread a rumor about me. It doesn’t really matter what it was about because Dinah was able to shut it down admittedly. Sometimes when I think about what she did about me, I just get this feeling like I’m falling in an ocean that has bottom; it’s never ending and I just keep getting deeper in the ocean. She was one of my best friends and I’ve never understood why she did that to me but I'll admit what she did to me did change me. I was a lot more distant with people after the events that happened with her.  _

_ “You have no right to talk about my brother” I said angrily.  _

_ “Oh, and how’s your mom? I bet she’s super happy that he finally gets to see you all again” She replied; ignoring the previous comment that I just made. Before I could say anything else to her, Zatanna called Helena over so they could talk.  _

_ When Helena walked back inside, I suddenly started crying. I really didn’t want to think about my brother tonight. One week ago, my brother was let out of Arkham Asylum because his therapist Dr. Harleen Quinzel said that he was mentally okay now and that he should go back to living with me and my dad. It was six years ago since he killed my mother and maybe there is a slight chance that he really is okay now. I didn’t think he was okay though; how can somebody who has had a stone emotionless face after murdering their own mother ever be OKAY?  _

_ One of the worst days of my life was when I found my brother digging a hole in our backyard to bury my mother. God… when I thought about her lifeless eyes and my brother just made me break down. I couldn’t act like everything was okay! My psychotic brother was living in the same house as me again! When he did come back all I could do was worry about if he was going to murder me, my dad, or both of us.  _

_ I was crying so hard, I didn’t even notice Dick Grayson walking out the front door with bruises all over his face.  _

_ “Hey, are you okay?” He asked me. I looked up with probably a surprised expression.  _

_ “Um… yeah. I’m fine.” I lied as I wiped my tears with the sleeve my jacket.  _

_ “Can I sit next to you on this bench?” He asked.  _

_ “Sure.” I replied as I slide myself to the left side of the bench so he could have some room to sit.  _

_ As he sat down, he seemed really tired; probably from the fight he just had with Jason. We sat in silence for a few moments before he decided to break the silence.  _

_ “I’m sorry about that.” He didn’t look at me, but I didn’t need to see his eyes to know he was sincere. I could hear it in his voice. “You know, about that fight between me and Jason back there. I didn’t want to fight him but, I don’t know… it just happened. Jason is a good person… it’s just we were both drunk.”  _

_ It was evident that Dick was still drunk because the lamp lights around us showed me his pupils, which were smaller then how they normally should be. Although I didn’t think he was super drunk because he was able to sit next to me without face planting.  _

_ “It’s okay. I wasn’t having that fun of a time here anyways. The only reason I’m still here is because Dinah wants me to here.” I replied, trying to make him feel better. I didn’t know why I was trying to since seeing the start of his fight ruined my night even more but, it seemed like he didn’t want the fight to happen. So I guess when I looked at the situation from his perspective it was hard to be mad or annoyed at him anymore.  _

_ Also my time at that party already sucked before I saw his stupid fight so, he didn’t specifically ruin my night. If anything, Helena should’ve been the one I was annoyed with because she brought up the situation about my brother and used it to make me feel like shit. _

_ My train of thought was interrupted when Dick started chuckling. _

_ “What’s so funny?” I asked. _

_ Admidiatly after I said that, I realized how cold it sounded. It was probably because I took it personally that he laughed right after I was finished talking.  _

_ “Oh, sorry. It’s just that sounds like Dinah. Remember last year when she convinced Oliver to take archery lessons?” Dick replied.  _

_ “Yeah, I remember. She told me she wanted him to take those lessons because she thought that Oliver spent too much of his time partying all the time.” I laughed. “It’s kinda funny that we’re talking about that now because Dinah wanted me to be at this party because she thought I didn’t party ENOUGH, well and socialize in general”  _

_ This time we both laughed. There was something that always comforted me whenever I thought about this specific moment. I usually just laughed with people who I felt comfortable with but, at that moment I was able to smile and laugh with Dick Grayson, someone who I didn’t really know; I mean this was the first time we talked. Maybe I was able to be like this with Dick because before he came over to talk to me I was really stressed and just sad in general; I think was so dejected that I put down my guard down for once because I didn’t have the energy to.  _

_ “Are Dinah and Oliver still dating? I don’t really talk to either one of them enough to know. You’re Dinah’s best friend right? So, I’m guessing that you know.” He said after we both stopped laughing.  _

_ “Yeah, they still are.” I answered. “And wow, you actually know who I am. Well… that’s surprising” I added with a sarcastic tone.  _

_ “Of course I do Barbara. We’ve been classmates since kindergarten and you’re Jim Gordon’s daughter.” He replied. _

_ He then gave his signature charming smirk to me, to which I rolled my eyes at. It wasn’t out of annoyance though.  _

_ “Look I know this is a kinda personal question to ask you, but why were you crying when I came outside?” He asked with a nervous voice while his eyes had a sense of deep interest.  _

_ I normally would have made up some bullshit answer like, “Oh, it’s just because the party put me in a bad mood” or “What are you talking about? I wasn’t crying?” But at that moment, I didn’t feel like doing that.  _

_ First of all, I was emotionally exhausted and second of all, the way he looked at me after asking his question made me feel like telling him how I actually feel. His facial expression, which didn’t seem mischievous in any sort of way, assured me that he wasn’t just asking because he wanted some hot gossip. Well, he probably asked me because he was still drunk. I guessed that when people get drunk they do inappropriate things like ask people very personal questions (but, how would I have known? This was the first time that I ever went to a party).  _

_ “Um… I was just thinking about my brother.” I answered.  _

_ “About him getting out of Arkham Asylum?” He questioned. _

_ “Does everybody in Gotham know about that?” I inquired.  _

_ “Well… yeah. You’re Commissioner Gordon’s daughter.” He replied.  _

_ “Yeah…” I replied. There wasn’t too much I could say back to him because, well, I am the commissioner's daughter. So of course everybody would know about and talk about my psychotic brother.  _

_ “Do you really think that you’re brother is better now? Like, mentally?” He asked.  _

_ He was asking me a lot of personal questions and normally I would have tried to change the subject, but I just didn’t have the energy to tonight. I mean, what else was there to talk about anyways? The algebra two class that we have together?  _

_ “To be honest, no, I don’t think so. When he was at Arkham Asylum, me and my dad would visit him during the weekends. But one time I decided to visit him alone.. When I saw him in his cell, he had the same look that he always had when me and my dad visited him-” I replied. _

_ “What kind of look?” He asked, interrupting me.  _

_ “A look devoid of emotion.” I replied.  _

_ It made me sad when I said that out loud. I never told my dad or Dinah about any of my visits because most of the time, just thinking about my brother was enough to make me feel distressed. I think I usually tried to avoid talking about my brother because a part of me didn’t want to admit that my brother was capable of doing horrible things, like killing our mother. But he was. In high school I knew that he was capable of hurting me and dad, but there was always that part of me that wished it wasn’t true. That wished I could still have a stable relationship with my brother, like we did when we were kids.  _

_ “When I sat down on the visitors chair in front of his cell, he said to me ‘Hey Barbs’. Even though he still showed no signs of emotion, in the moment I believed that he couldn’t of killed our mom. He was my brother. How could he , who seemed like a normal kid, kill our mom? But even though I believed that he didn’t kill her, I still had to hear it from him. I needed him to tell me that he didn’t do it.” I continued.  _

_ Dick was, to my surprise, still listening to me with full interest. I thought I was annoying him because I was ranting but, he seemed completely fine with it. Which was definitely astonishing because we’ve been classmates for a long time but we didn’t really know each other.  _

_ “So, I asked him if he killed our mom. He told me that he did and he didn’t regret it. That she deserved it because she didn’t love us. She was planning on divorcing our dad, so that’s why he thought that. Although, I think he just used that as an excuse to kill her. When we were kids he would kill animals in our backyard, like squirrels, and take them apart. One time I saw him-” I stopped talking and started sobbing uncontrollably.  _

_ Dick hugged me and started to whisper things in my ear like, “It’s okay. I’m here for you.”  _

_ He did make me feel better by doing that and it was better then when I was by myself crying about my brother (which was a lot). I think that when he tried to comfort me, that was when I started having a crush on him. There wasn’t that many people in Gotham who would be kind enough to listen to me ramble about my brother and also who try to comfort me when I start crying.  _

_ Flashback Over _

“Hello? Barbara?” Dinah said.

This stopped me from continuing to think about Dick Grayson. Thank god, because if I did keep thinking about him, I don’t think I would’ve ever been able to come back to reality. 

Before I could reply back to Dinah, our algebra two teacher, Mrs. Alejandro, quieted down the class.

“Today I’m going to assign you all partners for a new project .” Mrs. Alejandro said in a very formal tone, almost as if she was talking to queen Elizabeth, not a class full of high schoolers . 

“Can we choose our partners, Mrs.Alejandro?” Wally West asked.

“I just said that I’M choosing the partners.” Mrs. Alejandro replied with slight annoyance. 

After that, Mrs. Alejandro started to call out the partner pairing that she chose. I wasn’t really listening to her until she called out my name.

“Barbara Gordon?” Mrs. Alejandro said.

“Yes?” I replied.

“You’re with Dick Grayson. Go sit next to him.” Mrs. Alejandro repiled.

‘What????? We haven't talked since that night at Oliver’s house. I really wish he wasn’t my partner.’ I thought as I walked over to Dick. 

“Hi.” He said to me with a large smile.

“Uh...Hi?” I replied. ‘Ugh… I’m acting so awkward. Why is this happening to me?’ I thought as my heartbeat increased or at least felt like it did. 

  
  
  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barbara Gordon has to work on school project with her crush, Dick Grayson. Guess what happens?

I couldn’t believe who I was partnered with. Dick Grayson...I just couldn’t believe it. But I couldn’t keep on obsessing over that because I needed to work on the project. Basically, what me and Dick had to do for this algebra two project was type in different equations on the Desmos website (it was a graphing website) and then on poster paper we had to draw 3 graphs of equations that we looked up on Desmos. 

“I’ll grab two computers for us.” I told Dick.

“Okay, thanks,” he replied back. 

I nodded and quickly got up to grab the computers. When I came back to the table, Dick smiled at me. 

‘That’s the second time that he smiled at me today! I’m not going to survive this period.’ I thought to myself.

Of course I knew that him smiling at me meant nothing, but that didn’t stop my stomach from knotting up or my heart from skipping a beat. 

“Alright, so I was thinking that we could both look up different equations and then we could both draw our equations on the poster at the same time. You know, just so we can get this project over with.” I vocalized to Dick.

“Okay.” Dick replies back. 

As I was logging into my computer, I couldn’t help but wonder if Dick remembered the night we talked to each other at Oliver Queen’s party. Since he was drunk, he probably didn’t remember. At least, that’s what I thought. I mean, there were probably people at that party that were more drunk then he was, but he would have still been drunk enough to have forgotten. 

As we typed up our equations, I couldn’t help but be surprised that he was actually doing work for our project. Usually when I had to work with someone popular and uncaring when it comes to school work, like Dick, they would try to have me do all the work. Ugh… so annoying. But Dick didn’t do that.

Later during class, when me and Dick were both drawing our graphs on the poster, Dick broke our silence by asking: “So, how have you been?” 

“I’m okay… I guess” I replied. 

After that, there was even more silence between us.

God… it was so awkward. Mainly because I kept on thinking about that night. I kept on worrying about whether he remembered or not. A part of me wanted him to forget because I was embarrassed about all the things that I told him. I was especially embarrassed that I cried in front of him. The way he reacted to me crying was kind and it did make me like him, but I wish I didn’t need any comfort in the first place.. I wished that I was able to take care of my feelings on my own because I wasn’t the type of person to want to worry others about my feelings. 

As I kept graphing, the thought that he might still remember that night, kept on bothering me. So, I decided that I would ask him if he remembered anything about that. 

“Hey… so I know this might be a weird, but do you remember anything from the night at Oliver’s party last week?” I asked. 

“Why?” he replied. 

“Um… you know. Just wondering…” I replied, sounding hesitant. 

“Are you asking because we talked at that party?” He asks with a grin on his face. 

‘Fuck, he knows!’ I thought to myself. “Well… I mean… Yeah…” I replied out loud

I couldn’t lie about my intentions now because he remembered. If I tried, then I probably would've looked like an idiot. 

“Don’t worry I won’t tell anyone what you told me and just so you know, if you need someone to talk to, you can talk to me.” He replied.

I was totally shocked then and there.I didn’t think that he actually cared about my problems. Not that I expected him to care. Although, maybe he just said that to be nice. 

“I’m sorry. Was that a bit too forward?” Dick asked me.

I noticed that as he was saying that, he was biting his bottom lip and that his hands were twitching slightly.

‘He’s nervous. That’s weird. Why is he be nervous?’ I thought.

He kept on biting his bottom lip as I was thinking, so I finally replied back to him. 

“Um.. no… you weren’t. I was just surprised that you said that. I thought that I was annoying you that night we talked at Oliver’s” I replied. 

“No, you didn’t annoy me. I actually liked talking to you. Everybody else at that party just wanted to get drunk and talk about the different drug dealers around Gotham. I liked that I was able to have a conversation with you that didn’t involve any of that.” He replied. 

“You actually liked talking to me?” I asked, obviously very surprised. 

“Yeah, I did.” He replied. 

After he said that, we just both smiled at each other without saying anything. That moment wasn’t like the other pauses in our conversation because that time it wasn’t awkward. 

“Hey… so I’m going to a charity event tomorrow that my dad’s throwing and I was wondering if you wanted to go with me.” He said, breaking our silence.

“Um… like date?” I asked.

“Yeah, like a date. I know that we’ve only talked at Oliver’s party, but I’ve had a crush on you for a while now.” He replied. 

“Wait, what?” I replied.

Dick Grayson has had a crush on me? I couldn’t believe it. We’ve been classmates with each other since kindergarten and I always thought that he never really noticed me or if he ever did, he would only notice me for being an annoying nerd girl. 

“Yeah, I have a crush on you. Look, I know that was kinda an awkward way to tell you but, I’m glad that I told you now rather than later or worse never.” He replied. 

I giggled after he said that. Not because what he was saying was stupid. It’s just I was nervous that I might mess things up with him. What if I ruined that conversation with him because of my stupid awkardness. 

“I like you too. You seemed really caring that night at Oliver’s. If I was talking to anyone else that night, they probably would've not comforted me the way you did. Well… Dinah probably would have...” I replied 

“So, do you want to go to that charity event with me as my date?” He asked. 

“I would love to.” I replied. 


End file.
